Past the hype... Is blockchain relevant for humanitarians?

Join our FutureFriday+ on 18 May to discuss the potential blockchain technology has to improve humanitarian aid.

Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt how humanitarian assistance and aid is procured, disbursed and evaluated. Its effects could lead to improved efficiency, reduced costs, and better collaboration and cooperation between agencies and governments.

This Future Fridays workshop will examine the current landscape of blockchain in the humanitarian sector. It will then look at a ‘blockchain decision tree' being drafted by HumanityX and the TU Delft Humanitarian Technology Lab which aims to guide relevant parties to assess whether and how they could use blockchain in their humanitarian operations.

Participants, through workshop activities, will critique and contribute to the shape of the decision tree, increasing their own knowledge of blockchain, and contributing to a useful resource for humanitarians.

Programme

13:00 - Registration, tea & coffee

13:15 - Introduction: the Blockchain landscape

13:35 - Blockchain "decision tree" workshop (1.5 hours)

In this workshop, participants will be divided into different groups according to expertise. They will then undertake several activities such as: identifying and thematically arranging use cases; role playing to pitch different use cases to one another; and reflection on whether the decision tree has satisfactorily addressed participants’ proposals for the use of blockchain.